2023-08-25 19:40:30
For a long list of concrete measures, we will have to wait. Nevertheless, at the end of a week marked by the subject of insecurity at the Gare du Midi, a method seems to be taking shape to get the different parties involved in the issue to talk to each other. At least that is what Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden (CD&V) announced on Friday in a press release (a text co-signed with Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and Brussels Minister-President Rudi Vervoort), emphasizing the establishment of a space for discussion for a “coordinated approach” between the different levels of power concerned, from local to federal.
The National Crisis Center (CCN) is responsible for ensuring this “strategic coordination”. Initial meetings should soon be organized in order to “draw up the list of actions and give immediate content to short-term operational initiatives,” promises the Interior.
The Verlinden firm thus announces that it wants to work on “three axes”. The first concerns security coordination. In this regard, “operational initiatives likely to have an immediate effect on the feeling of insecurity will already be taken in the very short term. The second axis will focus on the problems of drug addiction and homelessness around the station, while the third will concern “work to adapt the infrastructure”, as well as a “reinforcement” of video surveillance. by the Brussels Region.
Rudi Vervoort sort du silence
In the wake of this announcement, the Brussels Minister-President resolved to break the silence which was beginning to be reproached to him. A little bitter, visibly, as to the form of the press release drafted in his name by the Interior – according to him, “a little frustrating in the sense that it gives the impression that the Region is calling for help, whereas just ask everyone to take responsibility”. The socialist also deplores some “unfortunate remarks by the Minister of the Interior on Dutch-language television”, when the latter “repeats that Brussels is not doing well”.
Rudi Vervoort is nevertheless satisfied with the approach adopted. “I salute the Prime Minister’s initiative. The positive aspect is to finally take into account the need for a global approach to this issue of the Gare du Midi” declared the socialist to the Evening. “I’m happy that we can move forward. What I’m waiting for now is that we stop promising resources that in the end we’re never given. »
Several grounds for hope, he said, would however be visible. “For the first time, the federal government is considering the problem as a whole. Saying that this is the first station in the country, which is also a Schengen zone, which also requires rehabilitation investments. We don’t want to ask a great architect to rethink this place, but it’s worth taking steps to improve its conviviality. However, the head of the Brussels government specifies that we must keep a cool head. “We don’t have the feeling that the situation at the Gare du Midi has worsened this summer, but I could be wrong and I am very careful with the figures. The situation worsened politically following the letter from the CEO of SNCB, and it became the soap opera of the summer. I’m not saying all is well. What tires me, moreover, is when I read that “Vervoort says that there is no security problem”. This is the mantra of the whole right. What I mean is that Brussels does not have any specific problems compared to other big cities. »
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